captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: a mile-wide tornado ripped through oklahoma late today, flattening homes and businesses and crushing cars and trucks. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: we get latest on the massive twister that first touched down near oklahoma city, from the national weather service in norman, oklahoma. >> brown: then, a pitched battle for a key syrian city raged on for a second day. we update the bloody civil war, as fighters from lebanon's militant group hezbollah take up arms to support the assad government. >> woodruff: a six-year-old company with no profit and little revenue gets bought for more than a billion dollars. we discuss what's behind tech giant yahoo's grab for the blogging platform tumblr. >> brown: myanmar's president

visits the white house today for the first time since 1966. ray suarez explores what the renewed relationship means for u.s. interests in asia. >> woodruff: spencer michels has the story of a san francisco startup, pushing talented techies to work with local governments to tackle hunger, blight and other civic problems. >> we think that the people have the skills of coding and design and creating technology, really have something to offer the country right now, and we think government is where they need to bring it. >> brown: and we debate psychiatry's new thousand-page manual of mental disorders and the very real challenge of diagnosing patients. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and everyday since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned soy

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: disaster struck the oklahoma city area this afternoon, for the second time in two days. an enormous tornado blasted whole neighborhoods and left little but shredded wreckage in its wake. there was no immediate word on casualties. "newshour" correspondent kwame holman has our report. from exploding transformers dotted the blue-black horizon. >> there's a huge flash right there. it is just ripping up everything

in its path. >> in oklahoma city, state lawmakers and employees alike quickly made their way to a basement shelter. some 35 to 40 minutes later, the great cloud finally spent its fury and disintegrated. in its wake, mile after mile of devastation south and southwest of oklahoma city proper. scores of homes and other buildings had been leveled, including an elementary school. cars and trucks were smashed together on highways. >> oh, my gosh. i don't know if people lived in that one. >> reporter: and fires burned out of control. part of a major interstate highway was shut down. the suburb of moore, the suburb of moore was also hit hard by a tornado in 1999, and today's storm came less than 24 hours after another tornado struck in the oklahoma city area. >> i had to stop because the winds were pushing my truck, and i had to slow down to about 10 miles an hour, and i was texting actually the lady i work with and i told her, 'man, these are the craziest winds i've ever seen'." >> reporter: sunday's twister touched down outsi shawnee,

o llin injuring more than 30 people. other twisters touched down sunday in kansas and iowa. >> we jumped up and ran into the shed. once we got the door shut, we heard the roof take off. >> reporter: all of this came less than a week after twisters pummeled texas, killing six people in the small city of granbury... southwest of fortworth. sergeant knight, welcome. what can you tell us at this point about the extent of the damage. >> well, there's areas of south oklahoma city and more that have suffered total destruction or extreme devastation. moore sits on the south end of oklahoma city. they sit adjacent to each other. the tornado traveled through moore and then moved northeastly into southern oklahoma city. there's a two or three mile area where there was utter

devastation. i don't have any numbers on injured people or if there... if there are fatalities involved in this. our workers are still trying to get to many people who are trapped in those areas. really our message for the public is for anybody in that area please stay off the roadways. stay out of the areas to let emergency workers in. i know they're having difficulty getting around everybody plus getting around all of the debris in the roadway. >> brown: i understand you don't have any sense of fatalities or injuries at this point but do you have a sense of how many people... were there a lot of people in the path of the tornado. >> there were numerous neighborhoods in the path of the tornado that were just completely leveled. so that's certainly something that we're trying to address and get into those places just as the moore police and all the first responders in that area are trying to get in there and do everything they can to assist anyone who is trapped or injured. >> brown: do you know how much warning people had? >> there was a good amount of warning. the local television stations here... i mean, they're very good at tornado forecasting,

being in this part of the country. they were covering the tornado as it came down out of the sky. and they were letting people know as soon as possible. i know the tornado sirens were sounding but it was a very fast-developing storm, a fast-developing tornado. unfortunately it moved through a heavily populated area. >> brown: i was going to ask you to describe the area a little bit more. heavily populated. you referred to various neighborhoods so this is a sub urban area where homes, schools, everything, right? >> it would have been a sub urban area. there are some businesses that were struck. it crossed i-35 and it's to the areas just east of interstate 35. that would have been hardest hit. there are some businesses along i-35 that were struck. then you move into neighborhoods where there was at least one school, one elementary school that was struck and suffered severe damage to it. i don't have any numbers again on injured, but mostly neighborhoods. there were some businesses but mostly neighborhoods that were just flat out leveled. >> all right.

so most important for you right now is, as you said, get people... people stay off the street. what else? >> let the emergency workers in to do what they need to do to help get these people, help get these people some help. >> and one more question. was there a medical center also? there are some reports that a medical center was hit as well. >> i don't have any information on a medical center being hit. although there is one very close to that area. >> all right. sergeant gary knight in oklahoma city. thanks so much. >> you bet. thank you. >> brown: more now from bill bunting of n.o.a.a.'s national storm prediction center in oklahoma. he's a meteorologist and the operations chief there. thanks for joining us. i'm not sure if you could hear that last interview. what can you add to the extent of the damage now? what are you seeing? >> well, i haven't seen the most recent damage images although just from what i've heard, it sounds absolutely catastrophic. i think the message i would want to get out is for folks that are

in the path of storms that are still ongoing, take these warnings extremely seriously. folks in this part of the country typically know that severe weather season is here. if they need to have a plan, now is the time to put that plan into action. if you're in the path of these storms, the seconds that you take now to put your tornado readiness plan into action could very well make the difference between life and death. >> brown: what about the enormous size of this tornado? how unusual is that and what would cause it? >> most tornadoes are typically much smaller than this. this is obviously towards the upper end of the enhanced scale that we use to rate them. when conditions come together just right, the change in wind speed and direction, the amount of instability in the atmosphere, you can get these tremendous concentrations of energy. unfortunately seeing tornadoes that are the size of what we've seen today and unfortunately our worst fears have become realized hitting highly populated areas. we just hope that folks heeded the warnings and were in a safe

place when the storms hit. >> brown: because you've had so many tornadoes in the area in the last couple of days, in this case one huge tornado or do we even know if there were other tornadoes along with it or going along at the same time? >> we don't know for sure. typically the local and national weather service offices will go out tomorrow or as soon as they can get into the area. obviously rescue and recovery operations takes precedence but they will be out as soon as they can and do an accurate assessment of just how many storms, the path, length and width and the intensities involved. but at this point, way soon to speculate. >> brown: as to the warning, is it your sense that people did have fair warning at least for this very large one that came through? >> well, the storm prediction center, the national weather service offices and the areas affected have been talking about the risk for tornadoes now for several days. we mentioned that it was going to be a multi-day threat. and today, of course, was another one of those days. it's not over after today. the threat will shift a bit eastward tomorrow and so i just

hope and pray that they heard the warnings and that folks were in the safest place they could be and they're okay. >> brown: just give us a sense of how this works because people there are quite used to tornadoes. how much planning goes into something like this? how much preparation for an event like this? >> well, we've been talking about the threat of tornadoes at the storm prediction center, the local national weather service offices that really interface with the communities and the local broadcast media. everyone knew this was going to be an active weekend and into the first part of this week. the day-after-day threat of severe weather i think has made everyone aware that the danger is high. most events often at least the tornado threat exists and then things are quieter the next day. this is not unheard of but it's a bit unusual that we would have consecutive days of very intense tornadoes in the the same metro poll and area. that will make it more difficult for the rescue and recovery

operations that are now underway in several ways. >> brown: we're seeing reports of 200-mile-an-hour winds. how unusual is is that? >> that's certainly extremely rare. again the actual assessments will take place in the days ahead. but it's a very small percentage of all tornadoes with wind speeds in that range. so this is a very rare event and unfortunately a very populated area. >> brown: bill bunting of n.o.a.a., thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": a pitched battle for a key syrian city; yahoo's billion dollar buy for a blogging company; myanmar's president at the white house; software engineers turn to civic problems and the challenge of diagnosing mental illness. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: a wave of sectarian killing across iraq left at least 95 people dead today. it was the worst single day of violence there in more than a year and a half. ten car bombs went off across shi-ite neighborhoods in baghdad. at least 48 people were killed

and more than 150 wounded in those attacks. car bombs also targeted shi-ites in the southern city of basra. elsewhere, sunnis came under attack in areas north and west of baghdad. in all, more than 240 people have been killed in iraq since last wednesday. there's word today that computer hackers in the chinese military have resumed attacks on u.s. companies and government agencies. "the new york times" reported that today. there had been a lull of three months after industry and pentagon investigations identified the chinese unit involved. the report cited security experts who said the hacking is back up to 60% to 70% of the rate it was previously. there was more today on the i.r.s. targeting of conservative groups and what and when white house officials learned of it. presidential aides confirmed that white house counsel kathryn ruemmler was told april 24 about a special audit into i.r.s. activities. she, in turn, notified the president's chief of staff, denis mcdonough, among others.

but white house press secretary jay carney says ruemmler advised against telling president obama, because the investigation was still under way. >> she expressed to other members of the senior staff, that this is not the kind of thing when you have an ongoing investigation, or an ongoing audit, that requires notification to the president. because, what is important is that we wait until that kind of process is completed before we take action. >> sreenivasan: carney said again the president was not informed of what the investigation found until news reports surfaced ten days ago. a senate committee reported today between 2009 and 2012 the tech giant shifted at least $74 billion out of the reach of the i.r.s. by incorporating in ireland. apple says it is the largest tax

payer in the u.s. at $6 billion and its strategies are legal. its ceo tim cook is expected to testify at a senate hearing tomorrow. boeing's new 787 dreamliner is airborne again in the u.s., four months after being grounded over battery issues. united airlines flew one of the new jets on a houston to chicago route this morning. the company said its dreamliners will resume international flights next month. in january, the worldwide fleet of 787's was grounded after incidents of the lithium ion batteries overheating and smoldering. boeing ultimately redesigned the battery and its charger. wall street had trouble getting off the ground today. the dow jones industrial average lost 19 points to close at 15,335. the nasdaq fell two points to close at 3,496. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: now to syria, where president bashar al assad's army has been trying to retake a strategically critical town near the lebanon border from rebels.

the sounds of an unrelenting battle in the syrian border town of qusair could be heard for miles around. after a lengthy siege, government troops, joined by hezbollah fighters from lebanon, pushed into the town, home to an estimated 40,000 civilians. warplanes and artillery joined the assault, and opposition activists said shells were dropping at a rate of 50 a minute. >> ( translated ): al qusair is being destroyed by the assad forces and hezbollah militias. may god help us. >> woodruff: opposition activists reported nearly 30 hezbollah fighters were killed and another 70 wounded. the rebels also claimed they destroyed four syrian army tanks and five hezbollah vehicles. qusair is important to both sides. for the regime, it lies along a corridor linking damascus to the coast and the heartland of

president assad's alawite sect, an offshoot of shiite islam. for the rebels, the overwhelmingly sunni town is a route for arms smuggling. the fighting underscored how hezbollah's involvement in syria has steadily grown. the shi-ite militant group and its leader hassan nasrallah have long supported assad. >> ( translated ): there are true friends of syria around the world, they will not allow syria to fall in the hands of americans, israel and sunni extremists. >> woodruff: in washington today, state department spokesman patrick ventrell condemned hezbollah's intervention in the qusair fight. >> hezbollah's occupation of villages along the lebanese- syrian border and its support for the regime and pro-assad militia exacerbate and inflame regional sectarian tensions and perpetuate the regime's campaign of terror against the syrian people. >> woodruff: but with hezbollah's help, assad's forces have made gains of late, and this weekend, he told an

argentine newspaper, he will not step down before elections. >> ( translated ): any decisions having to do with reforms in syria or any political action are local syrian decisions. neither the u.s. nor any other state is allowed to intervene in it. this issue is dealt with in syria. you don't go to a conference to decide on an issue that has not been determined by the people. >> woodruff: today, the u.n. envoy's representative arrived in damascus, hoping to get the syrians to attend an international conference brokered by the u.s. and russia. it's planned for some time next month in geneva. >> brown: and we turn to the blockbuster deal announced today in the tech world: giant, but troubled yahoo, buying the popular blogging site tumblr. the purchasing price: $1.1 billion. the prize: a fast-growing

social media site that features more than 100 million blogs in its network and reaches several hundred million people worldwide. it was started just six years ago by david karp, who dropped out of high school to work in the tech field. he'll remain as head of tumblr. this is the biggest move yet by yahoo c.e.o. marissa mayer, who joined the company just ten months ago from google. today, she wrote on a tumblr post: "we promise not to screw it up." rebecca leeb is research analyst of digital advertising and media for the altimeter group and joins us now. welcome to you. why does yahoo want to buy tumblr? what's the appeal? >> there are several appealing things about tumblr. there's certainly the size of the audience, as you just mentioned. but also perhaps more than that, the demographics of tumblr's audience. yahoo has been losing users, losing eyeballs for years now. tumblr represents the millen

yells, those 20-somethings who didn't abandon yahoo because they probably never aligned with the platform in the first place. this is a group that is incredibly important to the advertisers yahoo is is trying to attract. >> brown: explain for our non-tumblr users in the audience what it is. how has it been able to rise so fast and appeal to so many people? >> tumblr is a blogging platform that is very, very imageson trick. it's very focused on users uploading photographs. this younger demographic is a very, very mobile demographic. these are people who have their smart phones with them at all times. as anybody with a smart phone knows, it's much easier to update your status with a quick photo of what you're doing or what you're eating or what you're seeing than it is typing with your thumbs. we saw very recent move like this when facebook acquired insta gram last year. also for a billion dollars which raised some eyebrows at the time.

facebook has subsequently redesigned its news stream to focus more on these images as its users migrate to mobile platforms. i believe that yahoo is trying to do very much the same thing. in fact, since the announcement of the tumblr acquisition, yahoo has announced that they will be giving users substantially more free space on flicker, also a yahoo property. so we're seeing a big move towards images and a big move towards mobile on yahoo's part. >> brown: in all of these new deals -- and this one in particular -- the sce is still how do you make money out of it? i mean, what would happen in this case? is it likely we'd see money made through the advertising on tumblr or what? >> i think that this is is a very interesting two-way street. yahoo, of course, is a traditional new media company. to coin a phrase. in other words, they have very interruptive display

advertising. the "click here/buy this now" type. tumblr has been experimenting with what's called content marketing. and forms of what's known as native advertising. this is... these are marketing messages but they're more subtly integrated into the interface. they don't shout at the user. they don't interrupt the user. they're part of this stream and they're meant to attract rather than to interrupt. yahoo for the time being will leave tumblr alone. if they slap these interactive ads up on tumblr, the user s will probably abandon the property. at the same time, yahoo is going to learn from these tumblr products and try and incorporate them into yahoo's more traditional properties. at the same time yahoo can introduce tumblr to larger brands and more traditional advertisers, the pngs of the world, the mcdonalds of the world. this does have the potential to

benefit both parties monetarily. >> brown: when you were referring to the possibility of users migrating or leave, apparently there's reports that already some of that is happening. that just shows how fragile this whole system is, right, this ecosystem of companies and where users go. >> absolutely. you know, we've seen companies like yahoo stumble and lose their luster. a.o.l., my space, in periods of times that are less than a decade. it took companies like pan america airlines or ford motor companies perhaps a century to rise to ascendence and then to lose their luster. internet companies can do it seemingly overnight. marisa mayer is trying to bring yahoo back from the brink as her former google colleague tim armstrong is similarly trying over at a.o.l. >> brown: just briefly when she writes that post "we won't screw

it up," she writes that because a lot of people remember yahoo doing just that. >> not on marisa mayer's watch. these relatively new at the company. she's been there less than a year but indeed yahoo has made acquisitions and screwed them. so did news corp when it acquired my space. one of yahoo's real challenges is going to be how to keep tumblr cool when it's owned by what is very easily pe sieved by its very young, very hip user base to be a corporate overlord. >> brown: rebecca leib, thanks so much. >> woodruff: we turn now to the southeast asian country, myanmar, whose president visited the white house today. ray suarez has that story.

>> we appreciate your efforts >> suarez: at the white house, president obama greeted the president of myanmar, thein sein-- the first leader of his country welcomed to washington in nearly 47 years. >> we want you to know that u.s. will assist you >> suarez: for a half century, a military junta ruled myanmar, also known as burma and home to some 48 million people. then, in 2007, thein sein-- himself a general and junta member-- became prime minister and began gradual reforms. three years later, the country held its first elections in 20 years, and a week after that, the government released longtime opposition leader aung san suu kyi from years of house arrest. in the following months, thousands of other political prisoners were freed. then, in late 2011, u.s.

secretary of state hillary clinton made a landmark visit to myanmar, meeting with both suu kyi and thein sein. >> i made it clear that he, and those who support that vision which he laid out for me, both inside and outside of government, will have our support as they continue to make progress, and that the united states is willing to match actions with actions. >> suarez: in 2012, the country again held elections that brought suu kyi and her national league for democracy party to power in parliament. and last november, president obama made his own historic visit to myanmar, where he received a hero's welcome. speaking at yangon university, he lauded the progress made between the two nations. >> america now has an ambassador in rangoon, sanctions have been eased, and we will help rebuild an economy that can offer

opportunities for its people and serve as an engine of growth for the world.>> s rez: on the other hand, some opponents of thein sein's regime oppose the washington visit. they say he's been too slow on reforms and on stopping the bloodshed and displacement of ethnic groups, muslims and buddhists. even today, the state department again designated myanmar a country of special concern, for severe violations of religious freedom. for his part, thein sein denies myanmar's military has carried out pogroms against any group. for more we turn to priscilla clapp, a retired foreign service officer who headed the u.s. embassy in burma between 1999 and 2002. she's now an analyst and consultant to think tanks and foundations. and jennifer quigley, the executive director of the u.s. campaign for burma, an organization that supports democratization and human rights assistance in myanmar.

this is still a very new relationship. where does it stand right now? >> well, i would say that with president thein sein's visit to washington we'll start a new chapter in the relationship. i think that the relationship is over the past year has become much more normalized than it was before. i expect that we will be working very closely with myanmar in the future to help them build a sustainable democracy and overcome the many challenges that they're facing right now. >> suarez: jennifer quigley, how do you see it? >> i agree that there has been a warming of relationships between the two countries. it worries us that it has been very much done by just the government as opposed to involving ethnic armd groups or civil society organizations. >> suarez: both sides have made promises to each other during this early phase. what do they want? what does the united states want from myanmar and the other way

around? >> well, i think it's easiest to ascertain the burmese government's ambitions. they want all the sanctions lifted and a full normalization of relations between the two countries. on the u.s. side, i think there is a complex set to the equation. they want to balance out china in the region. they want to promote democracy in the country. they also want to make sure that american businesses get the opportunity to invest in all sectors of burr ma's economy. >> suarez: has burma given enough on american demands to get all those things? >> yes, i think that they have certainly been been very responsive to our demands. you will recall that for the past 20 years, we have been asking them to reconcile with the opposition and with the minority ethnic groups. and they have now more or less reconciled with the opposition. they've brought awning awning

into the aung san suu kyi while she has won a seat in the government. they have treatedded her almost as an equal leader in the government. they still have a long way to go with the ethnic minorities but they have opened the door in a way that the previous government never did. they have instituted press freedoms. they have allowed people to become politically active, join in the political process. they have now elected government. it may not be perfect. but it is certainly headed in the right direction. more or less doing the things that we have been asking them to. there are still some political prisoners left, but they have released many of them. i'm sure that they are on the road to releasing the rest of them. they've recently reconstituted the commissions dealing with political prisoners and nearly half the members of the constitution are former... of the commission, excuse me, are former political prisoners themselves. i could go on.

it's a very, very long list. >> suarez: jennifer, the idea that from time to time myanmar will make the news because there's either civilian-on-civilian unrest. people being burned out of their homes, shops being looted, that sort of thing. or people in uniforms with rifles are pushing people away from a place they say is theirs. what's been the state of that ethnic conflict? is it something that slowed down burma's path to democratization? >> well, i think this is the heart of the role that the military plays inside the country. we've seen a worsening of the military's attitude and tactics against the minorities. so while there may have been overtures by the government to arrange cease-fires with the ethnic groups, we've seen in just the past few months alone that the military has attacked and threatened cease-fires against the ethnic groups while they've ignored ceasefire orders

from the president three times over the last three years to stop attacking one ethnic group. it's a very worrying trend that regardless of the intentions of the government, the military continues to act as it always has. >> suarez: priscilla clapp, do those sorts of events make it too soon to host the president thein sein in washington? >> no, i don't believe it does at all. i think that they are trying to tackle these problems honestly. the former regime did not. they denied that there were any problems in the country. they thought that everything was perfect. this government recognizes that they have these problems. and president thein sein is here asking us to help. i think that we certainly should help because they are doing more or less what we've been asking them to do. it is incumbent upon us to help them. >> suarez: i'll ask you the same question, jennifer. too soon to host thein sein at the white house? >> we feel it's too soon. the past several months there

hasn't been much on the positive front that has taken place in burma. there's been more on the negative front. one of the key issues we have is that the government hasn't really acknowledged that there are government actors, whether that be police or security forces, that have been a part of the violence or allowed the violence to happen. what has been missing the most with all this violence is the pursuit of justice and accountability. until our president acknowledges that there is a major concern, bringing president thein sein here where he doesn't acknowledge the concern, it shows that this relationship will move forward regardless of whether there's made on justice and accountability. >> suarez: given what you just said, why is the united states putting so much capital, so much urgency on pushing this bilateral relationship along? things have moved very quickly. >> i think that president obama in his first inaugural speech said if you unclench your fist we'll outstretch our hand. burma was the only country willing to engage with the the u.s. government and make that

sort of change and grow that relationship. unfortunately for us, it comes at the expense of there not being much progress on issues that the international community has let fall by the wayside, the human rights agenda, the pursuit of holding the military accountable for the atrocities that it continues to create. >> suarez: same question, priscilla. why this speeding along of the u.s. myanmar relationship. >> they have made tremendous strides in the last two years. they deserve a lot of credit for that. it is a very poor, backward country that has been isolated for a century. more than 50 years. and they're trying to catch up with the rest of the world right now. they have a lot of social problems that they must overcome. i doesn't mean it's being directed by the government. in fact, i believe the government is trying to face the problem. >> suarez: priscilla clapp, jennifer quigley, thank you both. >> thank you.

>> brown: making cities work better through high-tech innovation. that's the ambitious goal of one san francisco startup. "newshour" correspondent spencer michels has our report. >> reporter: the scrambled eggs and homemade waffles disappeared quickly at this free breakfast for children and their moms in east palo alto, a largely minority community in the heart of california's wealthy silicon valley. many residents here, possibly tens of thousands, qualify for food assistance programs but aren't accessing them. some are simply unaware such programs exist. that was the case with jackie owens, a single working mom who says she was struggling to get by before she learned about the nonprofit ecumenical hunger program. >> i was in touch with social work, and i never heard about this program until word of mouth through a friend. >> reporter: beverly johnson is in charge of food assistance

programs for mateo county. >> we actually had been struggling with the issue of providing access to food, to free food, to reduce priced food for our residents of our county. >> reporter: johnson and her government colleagues decided to try a very un-governmental approach to the problem. they reached out to a group of savvy young techies for help. this is the headquarters of code for america. code as in computer code. it's a new san francisco-based nonprofit which connects technology professionals, like web programmers and designers, to local governments, like san mateo county, which are seeking innovative ways to improve their services. code for america, which has been dubbed the "peace corps for geeks" offers a one year, paid fellowship for high-tech applicants who want to give

back. the organization receives funding from the knight foundation, google, and ebay founder pierre omidyar's foundation, as well as from the cities which receive help. fellows have developed more than 50 websites and applications or apps to help solve a specific problem facing a city and its residents. this one in boston allows residents to adopt a fire hydrant and be responsible for shoveling it out when it snows and a website in new orleans tracks how the city is dealing with blighted properties. >> we think that the people have the skills of coding and design and creating technology, really have something to offer the country right now, and we think government is where they need to bring it. >> reporter: the goal of code for america, says 43-year-old founder jennifer pahlka, is to inject some silicon valley enthusiasm and know-how into local governments. >> so few people vote these days

and i think it's partly because they don't feel like the institution really means anything to them. if you want them to vote, give them opportunities to do something else other than vote, to help. government is supposed to be about how we do things together, and we can do that much more together if we use technology smartly right now. >> reporter: some fellows have come from well-known tech companies like apple and yahoo, and many take a sizable pay cut, receiving $35,000 for the year. moncef belyamani came to code for america from a.o.l. he is part of a three-person team, including sophia parafina and anselm bradford, assigned to work with san mateo county. >> i saw a unique opportunity to use my skills and being surrounded by smart and talented people who share the same vision for improving society. >> reporter: ten cities and counties were chosen this year to receive code for america's

help, out of dozens that applied. the san mateo county team spent a month meeting with residents and officials involved in food distribution, to understand how the whole process worked. >> we've worked at community shelters, and with food distribution, helping sort food, prepared food, helping people carry the food out to cars and talking to them. >> another project we participated in was the food stamps challenge. so we all pledged to try to live on the average weekly allotment which is $37.25. >> reporter: were you hungry? >> yeah, we were hungry. >> reporter: the three discovered many social service workers lacked up-to-date information about food programs. they are now developing a program they think could help. >> we're going to build an application that helps the different community based organizations refer clients to the services that they would be eligible for.

>> if we put this thing on the web, people can go and look for themselves, and access these services. >> so if you need something like say food, you can type 'food' in here. >> reporter: they met recently met with donald hunter, program manger of the ecumenical hunger program, to get his feedback >> it sounds like it is a good idea. it will be very important that individuals get involved with the agencies because a majority of people don't have computers or access to internet. so i see it missing a lot of people in this area because of that. >> reporter: despite hunter's reservations, the team believes that many residents in the community will be able to access the technology they are developing. >> in our focus groups, we talk to people, and they have access to the web, they go to the libraries, they borrow other people's computers, some of them have smart phones, so the technology is pervasive, and it is there, and people are willing to use it. it's a matter of taking that technology and turning it into something that anybody can use. >> reporter: they also have

stayed in close touch with human services director beverly johnson. >> i assume with whatever is developed, someone who says, "i'm the keeper of the data." >> reporter: johnson says she is excited about how the project is developing, but she has one big question. >> if we invest in the time and energy to form this really we come up with something that's beautiful and simple and easy to use, but a year from now they go away, and we don't have the resources to make it really a reality for our organization, have we done anything other than sort of create an expectation? >> i think this is an opportunity to help, but i don't see it as any kind of a magic pill. >> reporter: judy nadler is the former mayor of santa clara, california and now teaches at santa clara university.

when she was at city hall, she found it was tough for government to actually implement new programs imposed from the outside. >> having great ideas is wonderful, but how can you pay for it and how can you sustain that? it takes people and resources and government is short right now on both. >> reporter: code for america's jennifer pahlka says keeping the projects going once the fellows' year is over is one of her top priorities. >> what we've seen is some of our projects don't live on, but most of them have. the team that worked with new orleans on this project around being able to see the status of blighted properties. >> reporter: blighted properties from katrina? >> exactly. they did a fantastic job there, the city was so happy they offered the team a contract to continue to maintain and further develop that software so that new orleans always has access to it. >> reporter: pahlka says governments should be open to

new and more cost effective ways of doing business. >> we're spending too much money on government technology, that's absolutely clear. we saw last year that the california court system shut down an effort that had, so far, cost two billion dollars, and it wasn't to send a man to the moon; it was to get the courts to be able to share documents. we're not going to be taking on two billion dollar software projects, but we are showing what's possible, and then giving people in government the political will to say, "no, let's not do it that way this time." >> reporter: code for america isn't the only current effort hoping to bring technology solutions to government: last year the white house began a presidential innovation fellows program. and some cities are inviting tech savvy volunteers to develop civic apps during sessions known today as hack-a-tons. after getting more feedback from residents and officials, the san mateo team expects to launch its food app by october.

and in january, a new group of eager young tech enthusiasts arrives to take on a new set of civic challenges. >> brown: online, spencer sat down with two code for america fellows who founded blight-status, the app that tracks how the city of new orleans is dealing with abandoned buildings. watch their conversation on the rundown. >> woodruff: next, changes to the so-called bible of psychiatry and what it means for diagnosis and treatment. this weekend, the american psychiatric association released a revision to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, often referred to as "the d.s.m." it's the first comprehensive update since 1994. doctors often utilize the d.s.m. to diagnose mental illnesses. and there's been much debate over the years about its role. we look at the changes to this

manual with two experts. doctor michael first, a psychiatrist at new york presbyterian hospital and a professor at columbia university. and doctor steven hyman, former director of the national institute of mental health at n.i.h. he's the director of the stanley center for psychiatric research at the broad institute. gentlemen, we welcome you both. dr. first, let me turn to you. why is this updated diagnostic manual so important? >> well, the reason it's so important is that the d.s.n. is the guide book that is used by all mental health professionals. it's crucial to their ability to practice. it defines all the psychiatric diagnoses and the psychiatric diagnosis, arriving at a correct psychiatric diagnoses is the first step in trying to pick the correct treatment for patients. it has an enormous influence on

everybody's ability to provide the best treatment possible. >> woodruff: you have a somewhat different take on the value of it. >> well, i think it's critically important, as dr. first said, for diagnosis and for insurance reimbursement, but i think that the d.s.n. is scientific early. the brain gives up its secrets grudgingly. we have to understand the d.s.m. as a set of guidelines to diagnosis of often very serious disorders. but not as the bible of psychiatry. it is hardly meant to be by either the people who wrote it or in reality a perfect mirror of nature. >> woodruff: if it's an imperfect thing, dr. first, how does that affect what doctors can do and how patients are helped or not helped? >> well, it's imperfect mainly because our understanding of the

core of how mental disorders, what's behind meantal disorders, remains. there's a lot more to be understood. certainly as we understand more over the years our ability to provide the ultimately best treatment will continue to be improved but what the book does now, it's really a culmination of what we know about mental disorders. that's very, very helpful in being able to pick the right treatment. so i agree with dr. hyman. it's certainly not a bible. i think a better way to look at the d.s.m., it's like addictionary. it allows people to communicate. it allows mental health professionals to communicate with one another and with their patients. it allows us to communicate with administrators so that we're all talking about the same conditions. it has its limits because our knowledge of the way mental disorders work has their limits. >> woodruff: dr. hyman, so how are patients affected by the changes in this new version of the manual? >> well, i think the most important thing are patients. after all diseases like b

disorder, autism, dpletion depression, o.c.d. and i could go on, are the most disabling disorders in aggregate and cause enormous suffering. it's critical that doctors and in fact all mental health professionals have ways of matching patients with treatment and also that the whole administrative apparatus around medicine has a way of reimbursing those things. what the d.s.m. does is to provide a shared language so that mental health professionals and patients and insurance companies know they're talking about the same thing. i think that is all well and good as long as we don't assume that every semicolon in the document is somehow rigidly guiding us. so in the end, i hope that with this new revision and with, despite the controversies, that well trained mental health professionals will still make

sure that all patients in need of services get services. and i don't really see anything in the revisions that should get in the way of that. >> woodruff: that's a question. dr. first, i mean, how much danger is there? because there are some changes in here. for example, aspergers is i guess no longer in a separate category. it's put under the heading of autism. but that's just one of a number of modifications that were made. how do you see patients being affected by this? >> well, the belief is that since the manual reflects the current science -- and science continues to move along, perhaps slower than a lot of people would like it to -- but there is still a continuing improvement in our description of mental disorders and our ability to be able to predict their course. so the d.s.m. will provide patients as well as their clinicians with the most up-to-date information to be able to provide help.

again, it's far from perfect but it's still extremely useful. it's the best we have. i think we have a lot to offer our patients, and the d.s.m. is really the most up-to-date tool to provide that help to our patients. >> i heard dr. hyman say if professionals interpret it too rigidly, that could be harmful. >> that's true. one of the rules on the front of the d.s.m. that has been there since the beginning says it very, very clearly. it's not to be used as a cook book. clinical judgment. people go and learn how to be mental health professionals and spend years in practice gaining a skill. that skill is the ability to use their clinical judgment in making decisions. that clinical judgment remains crucial. the d.s.m. is part of the decision-making process for making a psychiatric diagnosis. dr. hyman is absolutely right. if somebody were to open up the book and just read the words and just apply them without using any clinical judgment, that could be very, very harmful. that's completely at odds with

the way the book is supposed to be used. it says so in front of the book in plain language. this is not a cook book. this must be used with clinical judgment. >> woodruff: what about the use that insurance companies and others make? educational institutions make of this? and how doctors use it? >> well, i often say that doctors use the book but just in the way that dr. first said, with clinical judgment. people who are insurance claims adjustors and educators and people in courts of law are not trained as clinicians and tend to read the book quite literally. i think it's important that with the revision there be appropriate educational efforts again to make sure that nobody who really is in need of services is denied services or the book is taken to be too literal. i think given our current state of knowledge, there have to be

compromises. and the book provides a way of communicating between clinicians and patients and people like insurance claims examiners. that said, i think the greatest problem with the book -- and i think dr. first and i agree with this -- the people who take it least literally are scientists because you can get yourself into the fix that if you recognize that the book is imperfect but you force yourself to follow every dictate quite literally, then you find yourself unable to make the very necessary progress that psychiatry needs. again the brain is the most complicated organ in the history of human scientific endeavor. we need to be able to approach it with an open mind. >> woodruff: it is... it does offer some big changes. we thank you both for helping us at least understand a part of how it all works. dr. michael first, dr. steven

hyman, we thank you both. >> a pleasure. thank you. brown: again the major developments of the day. a mile-wide tornado left widespread devastation near oklahoma city. winds up to 200 miles an hour shredded homes and businesses, crushed cars and touched off fires. there was no immediate word on casualties. sectarian killing across iraq left at least 95 people dead and the senate investigation found apple has used a series of maneuvers to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes. the company said all its practices are legal. >> woodruff: online, we have more coverage from today's monster tornado. hari sreenivasan has more. >> sreenivasan: you can watch video of the as it made its way across oklahoma. you can also see scenes from the damage it caused in its wake, that's on the homepage. can receive the most from social security. it's part of our ongoing coverage on making sense.

>> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at... >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you on-line... and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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